MaiMai

Just an Oversized Asian Chic Sharing Her Inner Thoughts

Job Hunt Burnout

Exhausted. Rejections. Feeling downgraded. It is exactly how I feel right now. For years I have been wanting to move and get out from the retail industry. I’m 27, soon to be 28, I have bills to pay and $9 per hour is just not going to provide me for the rest of my life. My paychecks barely get me through two weeks.

Each and every day I’m constantly on LinkedIn and Indeed looking at jobs scrolling down the page through the late nightfall. The requirements and qualifications for those job postings make my head hurts. Nonetheless, I still give it a shot. Some which lead me to rejections and most I never even heard back from.

When I fill out these applications and get to the surveys, I just ask myself why? Why? How are these surveys judging me before I can even meet with the employers? Why are the surveys giving me a personality score when the surveys don’t even know me and I’m just being honest?! What am I doing wrong that I cannot even get a job?!

I look at jobs located three hours away and even out of state, but with my student loans I cannot afford to move out. I’ll be dirt poor and homeless before I know it! I comfort myself by going to sleep, browse online adding stuff to all my shopping carts but never make a purchase, and then just watch funny shows to lighten my day. It’s so depressing.

Application after application and I’m burnout. I’m tired of looking. I’m tired of editing my resume and cover letter. I’m even tired of working at my current job!

I look at all my friends, most of them, who have a career and think to myself that they must be happy or less miserable than me. Some people ask me why don’t I get a new job, but they don’t even know the amount of applications I put in each week. They don’t even know how I silently cry myself to sleep each night. They have no idea how many times I have to pick myself up and start from square one. I have no idea how many times I have given up hope on myself, to only bite my tongue, accept the results and move on with life.

Job hunt burnout is real and for once I would just like to hear from someone that it’s okay and I’m doing fine.

maimai

18 Sep 2020

blogging

adulting, burnout, job hunt, lifestyle, millennial problems

4 responses to “Job Hunt Burnout”

Stuart Danker

September 19, 2020 at 12:13 am

It sounds like you’re in a tough place, and I just wanted to let you know that a stranger from halfway across the world has read your story and is wishing you all the best. You can do this! Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, no matter how crappy you feel. Take care!

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V

September 19, 2020 at 12:45 am

Hi.
I know this doesn’t mean a lot because I’m a stranger but I completely understand you. I was unemployed for a year and a half before landing my present job in late May of 2020. I know the burnout. I really do. I applied for more than 300 jobs in the time I was unemployed. I saw, heard and experienced more rejection than I knew what to deal with. I sold all of my valuables to skate by. I’m telling you this because I want you to know that things do turn around. They will turn around for you. Keep going. I know it sucks but keep going. You’re doing great and you’re going to get through this. One day that rejection will turn into ‘we can’t go forward without you’ and everything will fall into place. It sounds cliche, but it’s true.

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Kawm

September 23, 2020 at 2:44 am

Hi MaiMai,

You’re doing fine and you’ll be successful one day. Job hunt burnout is serious and exhausting. I’m close to your age and right now I’m 28 years old, soon to be 29 years old. I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering back in 2014 and I haven’t found any engineering job ever since I graduated. I wish I knew why I couldn’t get an engineering job. If we could all get the job and wages/salary college promises us, then I doubt we would be in this messy depression with student loans. With the corona virus, everything is just now harder and more difficult.

The dumbest thing people can say to you and I are “why don’t you get a new job?” Oh, really! Do those idiots think we haven’t tried or applied to the jobs we want. If we could get the jobs we want/need, we would. Otherwise, we take what we can get just so we can survive. Don’t give up MaiMai. Take some time off, get yourself a break, and then try again. I’m still trying even after 6 years.

Best of luck to you MaiMai!
Sincerely,

Kawm

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Living PF

November 23, 2020 at 1:23 pm

Hi MaiMai,

Maybe I’m too late saying this and I hope by now you’ve made some sort of stride and are in a new job you’re happy. But i think you’re doing fine. Also don’t be too hard on yourself, at least you’re actually trying rather than just posted somewhere complaining. That shows courage and strength. In this current pandemic things are a lot harder and difficult regarding employment. Depending on what kind of retail store you’re in have you tried talking to your manager about opportunities in other parts of the company that tickle your interests such as marketing or buying and merchandising?!

Wishing you all the best
Viewing from London, UK

– Darren

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